Bengt Frippe Nordström - The Environmental Control Office

Ayler (021/022)

Nordström (1936-2000) was a key figure in post-bop Swedish jazz, a former mainstreamer whose early loves Tony Scott and Newk were supplanted by a later revelatory encounter with Ayler and Ornette. A champion of free improvisation and active organizer (including not only booking shows and networking but releasing records, including Saint Albert’s “Something Different!!!!!!!”), Nordström’s beneath-the-radar activity finally sprang into public during the 1970s. By then a legendary figure on the Swedish free scene, Nordström formed the band after which this live 2fer is named. The group eventually settled into the lineup heard here – Nordström on tenor and clarinet, Lars Svanteson on violin, Bjorn Alke on bass, and Peeter Uuskyla on drums – and became acclaimed for their ripe, saucy free playing. The music here is from a single night (June 4, 1988) at Stockholm’s famous club Fasching.

The first disc is comprised of a single 50-minute track. Nordström’s quavering Aylerish tenor mixes with Ornette-ish violin. There’s very good interaction between the leader and drummer Uuskyla (as the bass and violin shift between textural work and front line momentum). Uuskyla’s patterns and sense of space recall Sven-Åke Johansson. There are many folk themes and allusions here amid the grainy sonorities. For much of the first part of this track the quartet treads dynamic water, though about 20 minutes in they start changing it up, first with a loose, limber funk/shuffle for violin trio, then with a soft open section (with arco bass and low sax). After some tenor/violin testifying, the group dives in once more to some excellent funk.

The second set opens with a loving, heart-on-sleeve trio rendition of Tony Scott’s “Swinging in Sweden,” where Nordström plays some sweet woody clarinet (investing this horn with the same kind of craggy lyricism and somewhat gruff tone as he has on tenor). The group keeps feeling its mainstream oats on the vigorous mid-tempo swing of “Fripping,” with more great rhythmic interplay (excellent counterlines and Bang-like slashing from Svanteson). The swagger and muscle is back on the closing “Fasching,” where the leader returns to tenor. There’s a lot of space in this one, though everyone’s active, and it really recalls Ayler’s 1967 Village concerts in its independent rhythms, contrasting motivic developments, and expansive textures. In its way, this track is as loving an homage as “Swinging.” This kind of music won’t necessarily shock anyone with its radicalism or newness (though it was a good deal fresher when it was recorded 15 years ago). But it sounds pretty damn good. This live 2fer is a valuable introduction to these players, as vigorous and important to Swedish jazz in their way as the legendary Mount Everest Trio.

Jason Bivins